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Conducting a social networking workshop in just an hour can be tough, but what's even tougher is using social networking sites effectively as a journalist.
To figure out how to do that, SAJAforum is looking to its resident Internet guru and co-founder Sree Sreenivasan (he's @sreenet on Twitter).
Here are the top ten tips we picked up from him at a convention panel Saturday.
10. Give a little extra when you send friend requests. Standard greetings are impersonal and not effective to build connections.
9. Organize your friends using the lists option provided on Facebook. It's worth the time.
8. Monitor your wall postings on Facebook. If it's not relevant, delete it.
7. Friend suggestions are a waste of time.
6. Be very careful what groups you join. Joining and listening is great, but it may bring credibility questions.
5. Use the "like" button on Facebook. It's a great way to build those connections with your sources.
4. Twitterer? Think about your audience before you tweet, and check out www.muckrack.com, a community for journalists on Twitter. You can sort the updates by beats and sources.
3. Post no more than three Twitter updates a day.
2. The power of Twitter is not necessarily the first tweet but in the RT (re-tweet). It's a great way to keep your followers informed.
1. In Sree's words: "what is common sense in real life is common sense in social networking."
-- By Suvro Banerji, Missouri School of Journalism student.
Photo by Preston Merchant
